Reguloides chloronotus (_Hodgs.), Jerd. B.I._ ii, p. 197.
Reguloides proregulus (_Pall.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._
no. 566.
Captain Cock has the honour of being the first to take, and, I
believe, up to date the _only_ oologist who has ever taken, the nest
and eggs of Pallas's Willow-Warbler. Mr. Brooks tried hard for the
prize, but he searched on the ground and so missed the nest. He wrote
to me from Cashmere, just about the time (June 1871) that Captain
Cock found the nest he obtained:--"I have been utterly unable to do
anything with _P. proregulus_. I shot a female, with an egg nearly
ready to lay, when I first went to Goolmerg, but though I often heard
the males singing, I never could find any indication of the nesting
female. The feeble song, like that of _P. sibilatrix_, alluded to by
Blyth as being that of _P. superciliosus_, is not that of this latter
bird, but of _P. proregulus_".
Later, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, he noted that "Captain
Cock took the nest and eggs at Sonamerg. It builds, like the
Golden-crested Regulus, up a fir-tree, at from 6 to 40 feet elevation,
on the outer ends of the branches. The nest is of moss, wool and
fibres, and profusely lined with feathers. Eggs, four or five, pure
white, profusely spotted with red and a few spots of purple grey.
Size, 0·53 by 0·43."
Later still he added in 'The Ibis:'--"Captain Cock writes from
Sonamerg: 'The second day I found my first nest with eggs. It was the
nest of _P. proregulus_. I shot the old bird. Three eggs. These nests
are often placed on a bough high up in a pine-tree, and are domed or
roofed, made of moss and lined with feathers. I took another one to
day with five eggs, and shot the bird just as it was entering its
nest. This was on a bough of a pine, but low down. I know of two more
nests of _P. proregulus_, all on pine-trees, from which I hope to take
eggs.'
"After describing the nest of _P. humii_, and saying that it was lined
with the hair of the musk-deer, he adds: 'In this the nest differs
from that of _P. proregulus_, which lines its nest with feathers and
bits of thin birch-bark; and the nest of _P. proregulus_ is only
partly domed.'
"I measured four eggs of _P. proregulus_ which Captain Cock kindly
gave me, and the dimensions are as follows: ·55 by ·44, ·53 by ·43,
·53 by ·43, and ·54 by ·43. They are pure white, richly marked with
dark brownish red, particularly at the larger end, forming there a
fine zone on most of the eggs. Intermingled with these spots,
and especially on the zone, are some spots and blotches of deep
purple-grey. The egg is very handsome, and reminds one strongly of
those of _Parus cristatus_ on a smaller scale. The dates when the eggs
were taken are 30th May and 2nd June, and the place Sonamerg, which is
four marches up the valley of the Sindh River."
Captain Cock himself tells me that he "took several nests of this bird
at Sonamerg in Cashmere in pine-forests. It breeds in May and June,
making a partially domed nest, which is sometimes placed low down on
the bough of a pine-tree, sometimes on a small sapling pine where the
junction of the bough with the stem takes place, and at other times
high up on the outer end of a bough. It lays five eggs, like those
of _P. humii_ only smaller. The nests I found were all lined with
feathers and thin birch-bark strips. I never found a hair-lining in
any of this bird's nests. The outer portions of the nest consisted of
moss and lichen, arranged so as to harmonize with the bough on which
it was placed. The nests are compact little structures."
Mr. Brooks, writing of the valley of the Bhagirati river,
says:--"Common in the alpine parts of the valley. It breeds about
Derali, Bairamghati, and Gangaotri, in the large moss-grown deodars."
The eggs of this species closely resemble those of _P. humii_, but are
smaller, and, to judge from a few specimens taken by Captain Cock that
I have seen, they are somewhat shorter and broader.
Texture smooth, without any perceptible gloss. Ground-colour pure
white, spotted freely and principally towards the larger end with red:
brick-dust red would perhaps scarcely be a correct term. The colour
would be obtained by mixing a little brown and a good deal of purple
with vermilion, or by mixing Indian red with a little Venetian red.
At the larger end they have an irregular zone of small, more or less
confluent, spots and specks of this red, mingled with reddish or
brownish purple, and a few specks and spots of the red scattered over
the rest of the surface of the egg.
This egg may also be well described, as regards colour and mode of
marking, by saying that it resembles the illustration in Hewitson's
work of the eggs of _Parus cristatus_, except that the egg of _P.
proregulus_ has a distinct zone of nearly confluent spots, and their
colour is more of a brownish red than those shown in the plate above
referred to, which by-the-by do not correctly represent the colour of
the spots upon the eggs of _P. cristatus_ which I have seen. These
spots are coloured with too much of a tendency towards crimson instead
of brownish red.
Three of the eggs taken by Captain Cock varied from 0·53 to 0·55 in
length, and from 0·43 to 0·44 in breadth.